After my sister visited Holland in July, Daniel and I were inspired to “Go Organic!” My sister lives in Minnesota and has a subscription to a local organic farm where she gets fresh fruits and veggies delivered to her house every week! How cool is that! Daniel and I don’t have access to something that awesome here in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, we decided to give Organic food a shot anyway! We hit up google for some more information on Organic food and we were blown away by the amount of research there is about consuming organic foods.

When we initially decided to take the plunge, we were a little bit worried about how much extra money we would be spending! But, we actually found that we don’t spend any more money per week on groceries than we did before. I think most of this is due to the fact that we started planning our weekly meals and doing all of our shopping at once (check our Our Weekly Meal Planning for more info on that!) which cuts down on the cost of all that extra junk we would buy every day just because we were hungry!

Now for the fun stuff. There are actually a ton of proven benefits of eating organic food during pregnancy!

1. Reduced rick of male birth defects

This study found that women who ate organic food during their pregnancies were less likely to give birth to a male child with hypospadias! This is a developmental abnormality where the opening of the urethra is located lower down on the shaft of the penis (or more generally speaking, it’s not where it is supposed to be!)

Note the picture on the left is where the opening of the urethra should normally be!

Why does this happen? The hormones in pesticides consumed during pregnancy can interfere with the hormonal development of the fetus. This can lead to “feminization” of male reproductive organs!

Not having a baby boy? There are still other reasons to consume organic foods as well!

2. Link between Organic food and Higher IQ

If you read Can Breastfeeding make your Baby Smarter? | The Link Between Breastfeeding and IQ, you know that there is a significant correlation between breastfeeding and cognitive development. But there is also a correlation between eating organic foods and intelligence! This study found that there was a link between the prenatal consumption of pesticides and a lower intelligence among 7 year olds! The study found that exposure to pesticides prior to being born were associated with poorer scores for Working Memory, Processing Speed, Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, and Full-Scale intelligence quotient (IQ). Children with the highest exposure had an average IQ of seven points lower than those with the lowest exposure! That’s pretty significant!

3. Lower Risk of developing ADHD

This study found a link between food additives and artificial food coloring and an increased chance of developing Hyperactive disorders. The study looked at a group of 3 year-old boys and a group of 8-year-old boys and found that those who were exposed to food additives and artificial coloring were more likely to express hyperactive behavior!

Not convinced? Check out the links to the studies provided for more information!

The Dirty Dozen

If you are ready to take the plunge into the world of Organic foods, there is some important
information to know! Not all foods are the same and there are some that contain more pesticides than others. This list from the Environmental Working Group explains the Dirty Dozen foods that have the highest amount of additives and pesticides! Check out this ideographic for a complete list of which foods you should defiantly buy Organic!

Now, I can’t say that going organic has changed my life, or that I have seen any health benefits from cutting out non organic foods. To be honest, I don’t feel any different than I did before. There is also absolutely no way of knowing whether there is an actual impact on my baby girl after she is born. But so far, incorporating organic foods into my diet has been a completely easy transition! If you can find a way to incorporate (at least the dirty dozen) into your diet I encourage you to do so!

Be sure to comment and let me know if you have tried going organic throughout your pregnancy! Have you found it difficult to incorporate eating organic foods? Does it fit into your budget? I would love to hear from you!

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Hey! My name is Leigh and thanks for visiting my site! I am a Millennial Mommy trying to figure out this whole 'motherhood' thing one blog post at a time! Join me as I navigate motherhood to my toddler girl and marriage to my handsome Dutch man!

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